We would like to take a look at something many small business owners talk about, and really hone in on something we think is very important. You can create a “Logo” … or … you can create Branding. Ideally, you want the logo to be an extension of the brand. Let’s dive right in…

Keyword Density is a ratio of desired search terms displayed in the content of a page to the overall content of that page. For example, let’s say you’re an auto mechanic in Santa Monica, CA who specializes in fixing domestic vehicles. One of your Keywords might be “Domestic Auto Mechanic Santa Monica.” Another might be “Auto Repair Santa Monica.” Still another might be “Car Repair Santa Monica.” Of course, your specific keywords should be researched and determined for maximum impact.

Your Keyword Density Ratio would be the ratio of keywords-to-“normal” words in any particular page or post on your website. The lower the density, the less search engines will feel you adequately address the desired topic and search terms. The higher the density, and you could be down-graded or penalize for what is called “keyword stuffing.”

It was right after half time. What was apparently a blow-out game just got worse for the San Francisco 49ers as the Baltimore Ravens returned the opening kick-off of the second half of Super Bowl XLVII to take a 28-6 lead over the 49ers. Then, a bigger blow out occurred.

There is a new internet phenomenon making it’s way through it’s 15 minutes. “The Harlem Shake” started as a silly, kooky video, but it’s subsequent video memes actually have root in another (and older) form of entertainment…joke telling. In particular, a very old joke which all comics love putting their person touch on. That joke is called, “The Aristocrats.”

Circle Marketing co-hosted one monster marketing webinar a month or so back to prep small businesses for the new year (2013) with 13 different ways any small business could start effecting positive change and massive revenue growth over the following 12 months. This was for Broadcast Louder’s Creativity + Abundance 2.0 series. Talk about creativity in abundance, well, the collaboration resulted in an incredible two-hours of jam-packed and useful information. Yes. Two hours and it’s all free!

Many people have paid hundreds of dollars for webinars like this, but Circle Marketing and Broadcast Louder figured putting together this free 2-hour class would help Small Business owners kick off the new year on the right foot!

Click here to watch the webinar, but get a notepad ready because there’s a TON of information to help your business grow!

For those who want to move at their own pace, and prefer to have PDF’s instead of watch videos, please feel free to download the supplemental ebook by joining our email list below:

A great way to create more revenue streams is by offering to partner up with other companies who aren’t your direct competition, but are in your field. For example, a printer should definitely partner up with a website design company. A dog walker could partner up with a few pet supply stores in their area. The possibilities are limited only by the extent of your imagination.

Having a mobile app for the iPhone, Android, or one of the many tablets like the iPad is a great nice-to-have, but it’s far from a must for most businesses. Despite what some too-good-to-be-true offers are out there, the truth is that apps are not an inexpensive endeavor.

When starting to build your app, or more importantly while still in the planning stages, know exactly what your ROI is going to be and what the real costs are. First and foremost, after you know how you want to make money from the app, you need to understand that prices to build apps start at $5,000. That’s the bare bones minimum. Now, take into consideration the updates and bug fixes, the enhancements once the next generation of higher-resolution screen phones comes out, and the marketing of the app, and you’re looking at easily five figures of investment.

You need some fresh ideas on how to grow your business, right? Well you have come to the right place! We will focus on the very top 5 things you can be doing right away to start increasing that bottom line and widening your profit margins as your business grows. Let’s get right into it!

It’s time to have a dirty conversation. We try to stay on the positive side of everything, but every now and then we have to just talk about something negative. Not because we like it, but because sometimes telling the truth comes with telling a side which no one likes to hear or know about. Knowing these ugly truths, or more accurately exposing certain outright lies, and learning why they are simply not true will help your business. How? Because you will know how to avoid these scammers and those who give digital professionals a bad name. Now, while Circle Marketing is a marketing agency and handles much more than just online and digital marketing, there is a naiveté in most good-hearted and trusting business owners and managers who aren’t as proficient or aware of the latest and most effective strategies and how to tell if an online and/or web professional you’re thinking about contracting work to has really “got the goods.” We’ve all heard the horror stories of how some business got swindled by a so-called “web designer” who left them high and dry with nothing to show for the money they spent, after being promised the world…or at least a darn web site!

First thing you need to do when making a Web Video is to make a connection with your audience. Most likely, your audience will be your clients, customers, and fans. Like any advertisement or publicity campaign, know what you want to get from the video. Know what you want your audience to get from the video. Plan a series of videos to help build familiarity, trust, and a connection with your audience so they’ll want to see more videos, and remember your company when it comes time to purchase a product or service which you offer.

Organic Search rankings are the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) results you achieve after you have done a great deal of acquiring back links, and have performed as much optimization on your own site as possible to improve it’s rankings. Paid rankings are when you achieve visibility in the highlighted advertising section of search engine results pages. Paid obviously costs you money when someone clicks your ad (or sometimes when a viewer sees it, depending on your set-up), but organic rankings are free when someone views and clicks your listing. While no one knows the complete search or ranking algorithms 100%, we have been able to do extensive research over and over about what has been known to positively effect rankings.

When you launch a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ad Campaign, you should do split testing. What split-testing means is creating more than one version of your ads, which run concurrently. One ad will probably perform better than the others, and you can adjust a campaign accordingly, as you analyze the effectiveness of each ad version. Differences in the split test could be different messaging, different headers, different images, depending on your strategy and what you’re offering.